Echo, Echo Dot Deep Discounts Part Of Amazon Prime Day

Amazon’s Prime Day 2017, which promises deep discounts every five minutes for 30 hours, will include big savings on its Echo and Echo Dot devices.

According to a news report in The Verge, as part of the company’s third annual Prime Day the eCommerce giant is slashing the price of the Echo by 50 percent and the Echo Dot by 30 percent. The Echo will go for $89.99, and the Echo Dot will sell for $34.99. The move on the part of Amazon isn’t only about rewarding Prime members with exclusive deals. With competition heating up in the voice-activated speaker market Amazon wants to ensure it’s still in the lead. The Verge noted the steep discounts could also be a signal the company is getting ready to refresh its line of Echo speakers later this year. Other deals include for its Kindle and Fire tablets, TVs, headphones and laptops.

Amazon created Prime Day in 2015 – ostensibly, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its 1995 founding, but also as an experiment to drive some activity during the summer shopping doldrums. As with any new venture, the first year was not without its wrinkles, but sales on the second Prime Day surpassed the company’s best sales day ever: Black Friday 2014. The eCommerce giant doesn’t share Prime Day sales figures with the public, but analysts estimate that it raked in between $500 million and $600 million last year, and this year is expected to be even bigger. But the value of Prime Day is in more than just dollars. The 30-hour online shopping bonanza offers ample incentive for new customers to try the Amazon app or a Prime membership for the first time and for loyal customers to try new services and products like Prime Now’s two-hour shipping or voice shopping with Amazon’s digital assistant, Alexa, via one of the company’s Echo home speakers. As the name suggests, Prime Day 2017 is only open to members of Amazon’s Prime loyalty program. The membership costs members $99 per year and affords them free two-day shipping on any order, plus access to a growing number of features like video, music, audio-books and grocery delivery.